PUTIN’S PROPOSAL TO USE GABALA RADIOLOCATION STATION TOGETHER WITH USA
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily
12/06/2007

What kind of figure will Azerbaijan become in the world "game of
chess"?

Policy is really an exclusive category, which makes possible any
impracticable idea and more frequently leaves unrealized those ideas.

The situation created around Iran gives an opportunity to the United
States, the "judge" of the world destiny, to speak aloud of setting
personal antimissile systems in Europe. Moreover, the US has started
to speak of building US antimissile systems in Czech and Polish
territories, though some of the Congressmen are against those projects.

According to some experts and many Russian figures the proposal of
Russian President Vladimir Putin to use Gabala Radiolocation Station
(Azerbaijan) jointly had a "freezing" effect on G8 Summit. US President
Bush didn’t give a satisfactory answer to it, he only emphasized that
the proposal was interesting.

Anyway, the experts think that the idea of using Gabala Radiolocation
Station jointly is not realistic.

Most of all, Putin’s announcement is a kind of proposal-test for USA,
which, may be, will temporarily weaken the whole pressure and at the
same time solve the issue of security.

If the United States is really concerned about the security of Europe
and situation in the Middle East with the intention of building
stations in the Czech Republic and Poland, it will be very hard to
give a basic and acceptable explanation for rejecting Putin’s proposal

The announcement of the General Secretary of NATO Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer, related Putin’s proposal of using Gabala Radiolocation
Station jointly instead of building antimissile stations in Poland
and Czech Republic, had also an air of uncertainty. The NATO General
Secretary seems to be more concerned about the fact that Gabala Station
is located in the Iranian region, though at the same time he mentions
that the discussions on this proposal may be constructive.

According to some military experts the realization of this proposal
will become a probable threat to Azerbaijan, as the Azerbaijani
authorities with Iran have signed an agreement of not placing their
territories at the third state disposal for the military actions. If
Gabala Station is jointly used with USA, the official Tehran may
estimate it as a breaking of the agreement, which is a menace to
the security of Iran. And as the USA and European countries are not
available to Iran, the appropriate target for the latter becomes
Azerbaijan.

Iran, in its turn, in the person of the Embassy of Iran in Azerbaijan,
announces that it is not concerned about Putin’s proposal, as Russia
and Azerbaijan are good neighbors of Iran, the authorities of Iran
are confident, that these two countries won’t take any steps against
the security of Iran. This kind of approach of the Iranian side
is probably based on the uncertainty, related to the acceptance of
Putin’s proposal by USA.

While the US President Advisor Steven Hedlin has already announced
of not seeing any problem in using Gabala Radiolocation Station,
if the situation is acceptable to the Azerbaijani authorities.

In spite of the Azerbaijani announcements about the ecological dangers
of Gabala Radiolocation Station, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov announces that Azerbaijan is ready to take part in the
discussions on using the station jointly. Mammadyarov informed that
they had already discussed the issue with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov during the latter’s official visit to Baku, but they
had not had discussions with the American side yet. Besides, in the
case of probable agreement Azerbaijan will not have any problem with
Iran according to Mammadyarov

It’s very interesting that Mammadyarov does not connect the issue
of the settlement of Karabkh conflict with the issue of Gabala
Radiolocation Station. Anyway, according to the Foreign Minister of
Azerbaijan the probable joint use of the station will provide more
stability in the region and the actions in the South Caucasus will
become more predictable.

Anyway, if Putin’s proposal is rejected, a rebalancing will happen in
the world level. But if the US accepts the proposal, a new card will
appear in the hands of Azerbaijan, and regardless of all negotiations
and discussions, Azerbaijan will probably use it in order to have
more profitable version in the settlement of Karabakh conflict.

Finally, the policy is based on the interests, and this military
proposal together with the oil interests will directly or indirectly
increase the possibilities of Azerbaijan to get more in the "political
trade".